


Live and Love Shorts

by Amarokster



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon Compliant, Drabble, Fluff, Gen, Humor, M/M, Shorts, liveloveyoibang
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-04 20:03:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14027727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amarokster/pseuds/Amarokster
Summary: A collection of themed shorts for Live and Love: A Yuri!!! On Ice Big Bang. Tags will be updated as chapters are added!





	1. Bing Theme #1: Garden

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be writing a full story for the Live and Love Big Bang, but they're also holding a series of smaller themed prompts! 
> 
> Please note that this and all following shorts here will be unbeta'd brain vomit. 
> 
> [My art partner for this prompt, Kris, can be found here. ](http://creativekatsudononice.tumblr.com) Thank you for the cute art!

Yuuri had never been much of a morning person, and moving to Russia certainly didn’t help. Working up the willpower to drag himself out of bed was hard enough to begin with, but it was even harder now that getting out of the cozy, comforting warmth of Victor’s bed was only the first step on a path that inevitably led to facing the frigid weather outside. 

Sure, Detroit had been cold and had its fair share of snowy days and blustering winds, but winter in St. Petersburg was on another level altogether. The chill there seemed to settle in his bones like a persistent ache, and even when Yuuri was bundled up in so many layers outside that he felt like a penguin waddling around, it still left a portion of his face exposed to the biting cold. It was almost a blessing when his face started to go numb from the exposure-- at the very least, it was preferable to feeling like icy needles were constantly assaulting his cheeks. 

When his phone alarm went off in the morning, just the thought of having to get up and go outside was enough to get Yuuri to fling an arm out of his warm cocoon and fumble around for his phone, shoving the covers back over his head with a mumbled grunt after squinting at his screen blearily and setting his alarm on snooze. 

Victor had long since given up on attempts to drag Yuuri out of bed in the morning, and with the exception of lazy rest days spent sleeping in, he seemed content to wake up early and go about his own morning routine until Yuuri finally shuffled out of the bedroom with a yawn. By the time Yuuri dragged himself out of bed, Victor was usually already dressed and making breakfast or halfway through a cup of coffee at the kitchen table. 

Yuuri did regret that he always missed the opportunity to wake up early and see Victor in bed looking sleepy and unkempt--he just didn’t regret it enough to actually _make_ himself get up early. And even on the days when Yuuri was roused from slumber by movement on the bed and the loss of Victor’s body heat when Victor got up, he was eased back into sleep by gentle fingers carding through his hair and a quiet murmur of Russian. (This made it hard to feel like he was missing out on much.) 

There was almost nothing that could get Yuuri out of bed before he was good and ready--or forced to.

Curiosity was another thing altogether, though.

It started with one of those vague overlapping moments between consciousness and sleep, where snippets of the outside world slipped into Yuuri’s dreams. He was dreaming about finding a giant box of puppies outside of a skating rink, and in the dream, he and Victor ran around frantically trying to scoop up puppies and bring them indoors. Victor picked up a tiny puff of a dog and wouldn’t stop cooing at it despite Yuuri’s attempts to get him back on track before any of the puppies escaped. 

Yuuri woke up from the dream feeling disgruntled and disoriented for a moment when Victor’s lilting singsong tone continued. The frown on his face turned into a smile, though, when he realized he must’ve overheard Victor talking to Makkachin in the other room and somehow transposed it into his dream. Yuuri let himself fall back asleep with thoughts of his silly fiance having a morning chat with his dog.

Yuuri woke up another morning soon after to the same sound of Victor’s voice coming from outside the bedroom, and he lay there with his eyes closed, letting the sound wash over him and trying to pick out words he understood from the soothing stream of Russian. It was only after a minute that Yuuri realized there was a familiar, warm lump weighing down his legs, and he opened his eyes and looked down to see Makkachin sprawled out on top of the sheets. 

If Makkachin was right there… Who was Victor talking to? Yuuri wondered in a sleepy haze if Victor might be on the phone with someone, but when he looked at their nightstand, Victor’s phone was still sitting there charging. And even if his phone hadn’t been there, there was no mistaking Victor’s tone: it was the doting one he seemed to reserve for dogs and babies only. 

Last time Yuuri had checked, there weren’t any unexpected puppies or babies in the apartment. 

Yuuri sat up, curiosity compelling him to check on Victor and see what he was up to. He took a deep breath and made the valiant choice to throw back the covers, leaving his torso exposed to the cold, and then he _got up_.

…

Or, to be more accurate, he attempted to get up only to find that his legs had gone completely numb under Makkachin, and Makkachin refused to move, painfully jabbing a paw into Yuuri’s stomach and letting out an annoyed _humph_. 

_This is what I get_ , Yuuri thought with a sigh. He could practically _see_ the warmth seeping out of his carelessly tossed sheets, and he knew it was too late to make a dive back under the covers and go back to sleep.

Yuuri grabbed his glasses and did his best to shove Makkachin off his lap without waking her, stumbling with shaky legs onto the hardwood floor and shuddering at the chill on his feet and the prickly feeling of pins-and-needles coursing through his legs. He shook his legs out for a moment before shuffling out of the room as quietly as he could.

Yuuri peeked out into the hall and spotted Victor standing in front of the living room window, leaning on the windowsill and chatting away to… nobody. 

“Uh, Victor?” Yuuri called out. “What are you doing?”

Victor jerked up in surprise, but when he turned to face Yuuri, he looked rather unapologetic for someone who’d just been caught having an extended one-man conversation.

“Yuuri!” Victor said his name like seeing Yuuri was a wonderful surprise instead of an everyday occurence, and Yuuri felt his face heat up in flustered happiness.

“I’m helping the plants grow,” Victor followed with a nod to the window.

“Plants…?” Come to mention it, the windowsill was packed full of potted plants, with another shelf full of plants above and even more hanging from a rod above the window. Yuuri had never paid much attention to them, but then again, he’d never had much of a green thumb. Not to mention that with Victor around, anything in the apartment that _wasn’t_ Victor had a hard time competing for Yuuri’s attention. 

“Didn’t you know? If you talk to plants, supposedly it helps them grow and stay strong!”

Yuuri walked over and took a closer look at the plants, not wanting to admit that he had barely even noticed the plants existed before this. “Wait, how often are you talking to them?”

“When I can spare the time for a few minutes in the morning, at least.” Victor reached out to pat one of the plant’s leaves, not unlike the way he patted Makkachin on the head. “I like taking care of them,” he said with a fond smile.

Victor, so eager to please and to serve even when his packed schedule barely left him the time to take care of himself.

“Marry me,” Yuuri blurted out, his sleep-addled brain effectively ruining any attempt at filtering his embarrassing thoughts before they spewed out of his mouth.

Victor blinked in surprise for a moment before relaxing into an indolent smile. “Weren’t we going to do that anyway?” he said with a laugh, and the sound of it was so bright and open that Yuuri felt drawn towards Victor like a flower turned to face the sun. 

When he found himself wrapped up in the familiar warmth of Victor’s arms with the glow of the rising sun falling upon the plants in streaks of brilliant colour, Yuuri thought to himself that getting up early once in a while might not be so bad.


	2. Theme 2: fumes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor and his goddamn hairspray.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Bing #2!

Yuri was officially done with it all.

He’d already gotten his fill of Extra when Victor finally showed his face back in Russia and immediately launched himself into creating a program about “the pain of separation” because he had to spend all of _three_ weeks apart from Katsudon. 

Yuri sometimes didn’t get to see his grandfather for months at a time, but did you see him constantly complaining about it? No. Victor was just a big fucking baby.

Then Katsudon showed up. Yuri thought that his presence might make Victor less annoying, but if anything, he was even worse now. The only difference was that Yuri now had two insufferable, lovesick idiots to put up with instead of one. (Georgi didn’t count because his personal brand of romantic insanity was mostly funny.) Just the sight of Katsudon looking all moon-eyed at Victor with his big dopey cow eyes was enough to put Yuri on edge, to fill him with a slow-boiling anger that he couldn’t quite place but kept simmering in his gut. He was really, really done with it all.

Then, oh, _then_ he had the misfortune of arriving extra early at the rink one morning and walking in to find Tweedledum and Tweedledumber pressed up against the barrier with their hands down each other’s pants. The resounding _thwack_ of Yuri’s bag hitting the back of Victor’s head had been gratifying, but it wasn’t enough to undo the damage and mental scarring. Yuri’s day was pretty much destined to be shit after a cursed start like that. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, Yuri now had to live with the confirmation of what he’d suspected but had done his best to pretend wasn’t possible: Katsudumb would fuck _anywhere._ (Katsudumb, of course, being his combined nickname for Victor and Katsudon. It was too much work to try to think of them as separate beings when they were basically attached at the hip.) Nowhere in the rink was safe, and now every time Yuri sat on a bench or leaned against a railing or went to the bathroom, a little voice in his head piped up, _“This could’ve been covered in Victor’s jizz at some point.”_

He was totally fed up with it all. Done. No more. 

By the time Victor’s latest bullshit reared its ugly head, Yuri had long since used up the last of his patience. 

Yuri was exhausted after a full day of practice, and his whole body ached down to his very bones. His ears were still ringing from Yakov’s parting screams, and all he wanted to do was change and go home and maybe text Beka for a while. 

But the second he stepped into the locker room, his eyes started watering, and he coughed as his throat closed up. The room reeked of chemicals, and the air stung his eyes.

Like the locker room wasn’t bad enough already, stuffy and reeking of sweat and body odor. Now it smelled like dirty laundry _and_ dying ozone. 

Yuri knew before he saw--how could it be anyone else?--but it still infuriated him when he spotted the source. 

Victor and his goddamn hairspray. _Again._

Victor stood around spraying away, using his phone’s camera to check out his hair like the egotistical maniac he was. Yuri scowled at him, hoping that somehow the force of his glare would cause Victor to drop his phone on the floor, but Victor remained oblivious and kept spraying wildly around his head until Yuri could practically see a cloud of hairspray floating around him.

How much fucking hairspray did one person need? Judging by appearances, Victor’s hair had already been sprayed to death into one big solid mass, some kind of impenetrable rocklike structure. Yuri was almost certain that even if he kicked Victor and Victor fell headfirst, the floor would crack before Victor’s skull did. Victor would just bounce back up with one of those shit-eating grins and parrot one of his standard phrases like a talking doll with a pull string. “MY YUURI IS SO BEAUTIFUL!” or “LOOK AT THESE PICTURES OF MY DOG!”

Yuri sneezed twice and grimaced. 

Maybe he could just hold his breath until he got out of here. Or maybe if he breathed in the fumes from Victor’s hairspray for long enough, he’d go out of his mind too and think that hairspray frenzies in the locker room were a _great_ idea.

Maybe… But no. He was done with this shit.

And he was going to make sure Victor was done with it too.

* * *

Yuri started out small with the rumor mill, made it believable. 

_“I heard Victor’s stuck in a contract with a sponsor that makes him use their hairspray every day.”_

When it finally made its way to Victor, he laughed it off and bragged about how beauty companies would _beg_ him to promote their products in the first place, so the whole idea was absurd.

This was fine.

_“I heard that Victor’s hairspray is actually for dogs, and he got it at a dog show so he could use the same hairspray as his poodle.”_

Instead of embarrassing Victor, it only seemed to excite him. He gasped at the ice dancer who brought it up and told her he’d never been to a dog show but always wanted to go, and then it was the same old song and dance leading to endless pictures of his stupid dog shoved in everyone’s faces. 

Fine.

_“Apparently Victor carries a can of hairspray with him for self-defense.”_

_“I once saw Victor spray an entire outfit he was wearing... with hairspray.”_

_“Victor thinks that his hairspray is lucky since he always uses the same kind right before competitions, and he always wins.”_

Once the rumor-mongering took off, Yuri didn’t even have to participate anymore. He just let it fly free and the rumors made themselves, getting more and more ridiculous with every iteration.

Victor seemed bemused by every rumor, laughing and shaking his head and taking it in stride, but that was fine. None of these rumors mattered, after all.

It all became worth it when Yuri got back in the fray to let one more little rumor spread, and his plans finally came to fruition. 

When the day of destiny came, Yuri was suffering through Victor’s attempts to fumigate the locker room again while Katsudumb flirted their way through a lunch break. 

“Oh, Victor, that reminds me.” Katsudon spoke up as Victor continued to spray away the few remaining brain cells he had. “Sergei said that you’ve been styling your hair at the rink to try to cover up your receding hairline. Can you believe it?” He laughed and reached up to poke the top of Victor’s head. “He was saying that the only reason you’d use so much hairspray is because you’re desperate to hide a bald spot!” 

Yuri turned away to hide the unstoppable, fiendish grin working its way across his face, but he still caught a glimpse of Victor’s eyes going wide and his hands freezing mid air.

“...Wow, that’s hilarious, Yuuri!” Victor only missed a beat, and his voice was almost the usual disgustingly sugary singsong tone that he seemed to reserve for Yuuri. “What a crazy idea!” 

Victor laughed and laughed and laughed, and Katsudon laughed with him. 

Yuri laughed on the inside, too, because aside from the laughter, the locker room was now blissfully silent.

When Yuri went to get his belongings out of his locker that evening, he noticed several familiar cans of hairspray dumped unceremoniously in the trash can in the corner.

He knew it was petty, but did he still feel accomplished? Fuck yes. 

A giddy kind of glee started to bubble up inside of him, spilling out as breathless laughter. Maybe this bullshit was worth it, if Yuri could get this much entertainment out of it.

_“This trash can might have been covered in Victor’s jizz at some point_ ,” Yuri’s inner voice helpfully reminded him.

… Never mind. Yuri was officially done with it all.


	3. Prompt: molasses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bakery/model AU.
> 
> (It's not going where you think it's going.)
> 
> This was pretty fun to work on! My team came up with some general ideas for what we wanted to do, then each took it in our own direction with the same base concepts.
> 
> You can check out my artist's art [here!](https://creativekatsudononice.tumblr.com/post/173433483662/and-my-piece-for-the-third-mini-bing-is-finally)  
> Thank you for the cute art!  
> My fellow writer for this one did a different take, and you can check it out [here!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14484078) They did a great job and managed to pack in a full, cohesive, charming story in very few words!

When Yuuri showed up for work at his part-time job that morning, he knew it was going to be a rough day. Yuuri had forgotten he was out of coffee and then almost missed his bus transfer, and the thought of spending hours on his aching feet in the bakery was less than appealing after the previous night of dance classes. To really smear his face in the mud, the sun hadn’t even come up yet, but here he was dragging himself half-conscious through the door of the unfortunately-named _Sunrise Panatteria._

Yuuri barely had time to set his bag down behind the front counter before his boss Celestino had come out of the back room with a booming, “Ciao ciao!” and wrapped a meaty, flour-covered arm around Yuuri’s shoulder, the dead weight of it settling on him uncomfortably. 

“Yuuri!” Celestino gestured with his other arm to the space around him. “Get ready. Just picture it... _molasses day._ ” He paused before saying the words, as though he’d come up with something brilliant and was waiting for Yuuri’s praise.

Unfortunately, the only thing Yuuri could bring himself to picture at this time of day was his bed waiting for him back at his apartment.

“It’s already molasses bar day, so we’ll just take it up a notch, go all out. Molasses as far as the eye can see, Yuuri. 50% off all molasses products. We’ll even leave the door open so we can draw in customers with the scent.” Celestino kept talking, heedless of Yuuri’s complete lack of response.

“ _Leave the door open?”_ Yuuri’s toes curled inside his shoes at the thought of the chilling winds blasting into the bakery all day. It was the middle of February, and Celestino had clearly lost his mind. 

“What’s a little sacrifice in the name of sales, eh?” Celestino slapped him heartily on the back, the jolt of it reverberating painfully down Yuuri’s spine. “Anyway, I’ve got more baking to do, so I’ll leave all the sales tags and signs to you! Let me have a look before we open up, alright?” With that said, he barreled his way back to the prep area, leaving Yuuri alone in the front of the bakery.

Yuuri sighed. What was Celestino thinking? First of all, molasses bar day? Who would even believe that was a thing? But still… If Celestino wanted it, Yuuri would make it happen. 

He made do with what paper and pens he could find, making signs of various sizes for the front windows and some of the displays, and then he set about getting the day’s goods ready to go. As he carted trays of baked goods out to the front, he started to wonder again if Celestino had started to lose it. It was more of a descent into molasses madness than a celebration--not just molasses bars, but molasses crinkle cookies, gingerbread, cakes with molasses buttercream, shoofly pie, molasses cupcakes… Yuuri did his best to leave some regular staples prominently displayed, but it was still overwhelming.

When the shop finally opened for the day, Yuuri said a fond farewell to his last moments of warmth and propped open the front door, retreating back to the front counter to greet customers. The first few hours of the day passed without much fanfare, although Yuuri had to admit the flow of customers did seem better than usual. Aside from that, the only thing worthy of note was the cold seeping into Yuuri’s fingertips and toes, leaving him dreaming of a hot bath at home.

But then Yuuri spotted someone who took his breath away and made him forget all about it.

Yuuri almost mistook the man for a woman at first, with his slim figure, long silver hair, and beautiful features, but on second glance, there was no mistaking the set of his jaw and his broad shoulders. His androgynous features gave him an almost ethereal beauty, though, and his beaming smile as he walked in the door was almost blinding.

He was also utterly, unbelievably underdressed for the weather.

Yuuri gawked as the man walked in wearing a skintight getup that left little to the imagination and much more exposed and cheerfully exclaimed, “It’s so refreshing in here!” as though the front of the bakery wasn’t just as cold as it was outside.

Yuuri tried not to think about it.

The man started working his way through the bakery, peering at various items, but then his gaze happened to turn in Yuuri’s direction. And stay there.

Yuuri looked to his left and right to see if there was something interesting there that he might’ve missed, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe he was just imagining things?

As the customer made his way around the store, though, he kept glancing at Yuuri, obviously enough that even Yuuri couldn’t bring himself to deny it completely.

Yuuri struggled to understand what was going on but eventually decided to give up. The cold had reached his brain and he was hallucinating. That was it. He’d just close his eyes for a moment, and then everything would be normal again.

“Hi there.” 

Things weren’t normal again.

Yuuri opened his eyes to see the beautiful man standing right in front of him, trapping Yuuri in a direct path to his heart-stopping smile, and his eyes… Maybe Yuuri would’ve thought about drowning in oceans of blue under normal circumstances, but it was so fucking cold in the store that he only felt like he’d dived headfirst onto a frozen lake.

> “Hello, how can I help you?” Yuuri put on his best customer service smile, but his eyes struggled to find a place to land, flitting between a beautiful face that threatened to turn his brain to mush and an outfit that also threatened to turn his brain to mush for being completely impossible to comprehend.

“Well, Yuuri,” the man said, looking down at Yuuri’s nametag, “I’m glad I saw this place! I was just looking for a pick-me-up after a bad morning, and everything here looks amazing. I can’t decide what to get, though!”

Yuuri was relieved to find himself back in familiar customer service territory, a blissful return to normality. “Well, as you can see, we’re having a sale today.” He gestured to the excessive signage. “But if you ask me, there’s nothing like chocolate to cheer you up, right? We have a really great dark chocolate cake here with a chocolate buttercream, and I know a slice of it always makes me feel better after a bad day.” He pointed at the display case next to him.

“Oh?” The customer crouched down to take a look at the cake. “This... “

“Hm?”

“This looks just like my dog!” The customer bounced up with a gasp, beaming again, and oh, Yuuri had to avert his eyes to keep himself from getting swept away and, wait--

“...Like your dog?” Yuuri looked down at the cake, which looked like... a cake. A nicely decorated, delicious cake, of course, but without an animalistic feature in sight. 

“Yes, it’s the same color as her! Look, I’ll show you!” Before Yuuri could protest, the man had already whipped out his phone (from _where??)_ and pulled up a photo, turning to show Yuuri. “See?”

Oh, Yuuri saw. Yuuri saw a picture of the man shot from the torso up, shirtless in a poolside chair, with his hair spilling out beside him, his sculpted torso on display, droplets of water running down his chest, a charming wink on his face, and… 

Yes, there was a dog. A giant, fluffy poodle pressed against its owners side with its tongue lolling out adorably. “Very cute,” Yuuri choked out, eyes darting between his greatest love in life, adorable dogs, and his newest love in life, this stranger’s glistening abs.

“I have more pictures! Do you want to see?” The man purred out the words, leaning in with that smile, and Yuuri had a bizarre thought that he allowed himself to consider for an instant in this bizarre day: _Was this guy flirting with him?_

Yuuri slammed his inner panic button, resulting in the unfortunate words that came out of his mouth next. “Pictures of you, or of your dog?”

The man’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment before he started laughing. “My dog, of course! You can see pictures of me anywhere, so pictures of _her_ are the real treat.” He flipped his hair back. “I’m a model. Victor Nikiforov, you might have heard of me?”

A model. Of course. There was no way a model would be flirting with him.

“S-sorry, I don’t really know much about fashion.” Yuuri tried desperately to steer his mind back to baked goods and away from _I could Google pictures of him later._ “But, um, the cake?”

“Ah, of course! Sorry, I didn’t mean to waste your time. I’m sure a cute guy like you has enough people trying to do that.” The model-- _Victor--_ winked conspiratorially. 

The model was flirting with him. 

_The model was flirting with him._

Yuuri’s face was burning, his heart was pounding, and his brain had gone blank.

“I’ll take a slice of the cake to go, then, but… Do you mind if I ask you just one question, Yuuri?”

 

“Of course, I mean… Of course it’s fine.”

“Even if it’s unrelated?” Victor raised his brow, smiling sheepishly.

 _No, it couldn’t be, but…_

“Ask away,” Yuuri replied, hoping he sounded confident and cool. 

Victor ran a hand through his hair, glancing nervously around the bakery. “It’s a little embarrassing to ask this in front of all of these people, even for me, but…” He leaned in. His cheeks were dusted adorably with a rosy pink. 

The panicked screaming in Yuuri’s mind escalated to a high-pitched whine. Was this going to happen? Was this reality?

“I guess there couldn’t be a better time than now, since I was lucky enough to stop by here today.” There was a glimmer of determination in the bright blue of his eyes as Victor leaned in closer yet with his elbows on the counter. 

Yuuri nodded, head bobbing up and down mindlessly as he broke into a cold sweat. This was it. It was happening.

Victor took a deep breath, looked earnestly into Yuuri’s eyes, and whispered.

_“What’s molasses?”_


End file.
